Far Out Meets: Fontaines D.C. – On the eve of a hattrick of masterpieces
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Credit: Press
Playlist: Fontaines D.C. pick the new bands they love most
When Fontaines D.C. arrived on the scene with their debut album Dogrel in 2019, they heralded a change in alternative music. With a muscular and revitalised sound, they quickly went from emerging talents to an established act proving influential when it comes to those attempting to follow in their footsteps.
As Tom Coll said when we recently caught up with the band to discuss their forthcoming record Skinty Fia and a whole host more, “I was in New York last week, and I kind of felt like I got transported into a little scene of bands that I was sort of hanging out with and coming back to London I feel like that is a very clear thing here too. You’ve got loads of bands here like Shame and Black Midi and that whole like South London crew. I think there is a real tangible thing here.”
It is notable that this change has been an organic one with cliques forming despite much industry influence. “I’ve not seen the industry change that much at all,” Conor Curley opined. “We kind of came up at the peak of streaming so that’s remained. I guess the rebirth of vinyl has happened at the same time and I think we’re still in that period of time. There probably will be a bigger shift in the next couple of years but I don’t really know where that will go though.”
While the industry might not have changed that much, the scene that Fontaines D.C. find themselves at the pinnacle of is positively booming. Thus, when asked for their picks of the best new music around, they were evidently spoiled for choice. Nevertheless, they hummed and hawed their way to a cracking selection which we’ve wrapped up in a playlist at the bottom of the piece.
“I went to a show of Katy J Pearson’s. She played The Village Underground. It was class, she’s class. It was really, really good,” Coll enthused. Here at Far Out, we happen to agree. Her debut record, Return, was a hook-laden mix of the ethereal world of pillow-propped folk and the rather more visceral edge of the sort of seamless pop that Fleetwood Mac offered up with Rumours. Her recent work on Orlando Weeks’ bliss-bleached bopping masterpiece Hop Up hints that there’s plenty more to come too.
Next up, Curley offered up his favourite record of recent times. “I love that album On All Fours,” he said of Goat Girl’s 2021 swirling wave of genre-blending brilliance featuring anthemic tunes like ‘Sad Cowboy’. “I listened to it when it came out but since then I’ve got so much more into it. I feel like it’s made sense to me more, I feel like I’ve gotten to the place where I understand it more. It’s amazing man.”
Another live act Curley has had his eye on is Obongjayar, and the Nigerian-born London-based artists’ recent art gallery set is one of the best he has seen. “I went to see Obongjayar in some gallery a few nights ago and it was an unbelievable performance. He was like standing on the tables and everything. It was fucking incredible. He was amazing.”
As drummer Emanuel Burton recent penned in an op-ed for Far Out regarding the racist realities of the music industry, artists like Obongjayar and Little Simz whom he collaborated with once upon a time, are an open “reminder that everyone can achieve what they want, and [they] make it [their] duty to remind everyone. We are all the same, it just takes discipline, studentship, sacrifice and dedication. Sometimes all you need to motivate yourself is to see someone just like you, doing what you want to do or being where you want to be.”
The last artists they celebrated are ones that they are soon set to take the stage with as part of their collaboration with Jameson for a St. Patrick’s Day gig and global livestream. They’ll even be teaming up with fellow Dublin acts Biig Piig and Monjola. “They’re amazing,” Coll proclaimed. “I feel like Jess [Smyth of Biig Piig] is just one of those talents that is next level. I got turned onto her music during the first lockdown and it was just class. She had a song called ‘Switch’, and I was living with my brother at the time, and it was the only song that we could both agree on being good—so that’s a pretty good sign.”
It would seem that there are pretty good signs aplenty in the music industry at the moment, and with their dramatic coupling of timeless influences and unflinching youthfulness, you’d have to say that Fontaines D.C. are helping to spawn some of them. You can find out more about the Jameson’s Connects x Fontaines D.C. Livestream by clicking here.
After two years without being able to toast to St. Patrick’s Day we’re chomping at the bit to peek at Skinty Fia in the most fitting fashion. What a party and what an album it promises to be as the band look to affirm their forever felicitously wavering voice and capture a hattrick of masterpieces to date.
Fontaines D.C. will be taking part in Jameson’s Connects incredible St. Patrick’s Day Global Livestream on March 17th for which you can register for free tickets here.
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